PPM

You might think it was an obvious statement to say that, in a world where there is a horror story, almost weekly, about an embarrassing high profile project failure costing millions and delivering nothing, sensible companies would have in place effective, metrics driven Project Portfolio Management (PPM) systems and processes.  I'm sure you all have.  No?  Don't worry you're not alone.

Having been responsible for my fair share of cost- or time- 'challenged' projects (overrun has such an unfortunate connotation ...), I am fully aware that knowing what is sensible and achieving sensibility are not common bedfellows.  So why have I and my fellow Project Professionals (my PRINCE2 is more Machiavellian than yours) failed to keep a tight control on these black holes?

My first observation is that Project Management and PPM are different beasts, requiring different skills and experience.  Using a PM to do PPM seems sensible, but there are an alarmingly large amount of 'gotchas'.  For instance, it is quite feasible to plan, design and manage a project using MS Project (yes, I know that real PMs use Artemis).  However, trying to prioritise and schedule 50 business-critical projects using this software would be ambitious to say the least. 

Secondly, project prioritisation requires interacting with some of the most powerful people in your organisation.  Business projects are seen by their sponsors as a test of virility and woe betide anyone who doesn't treat these symbols with the respect they feel they are due.  Senior management are only interested in their pet projects being delivered immediately.  They don't give a gnat's testicle for anyone else's projects, and normally prefer everyone else's projects to fail to make themselves look better ...

So, giving a sponsor the reasons why their project is going to be delayed, while their rival's goes ahead, might seem logical, captain, but you shouldn't be surprised to suffer a verbal (and possibly physical) roasting, probably leading to a rapid and permanent posting to the Anchorage, Alaska office of your organisation.

But what about the PPM software the vendors are pushing?  Surely, given it costs a fortune, it will solve these problems?  I get too many icy postcards to believe that.  PPM software saves some nifty Excel macros, but fundamentally only gives you one part of the answer - the depth.  By this I mean the detailed metrics about the benefits, risks, costs and implications of the projects.  These are very important, but you need two other pillars in place to succeed.

Width.  The only way to get protection from the wrath of individual sponsors is to organise the equivalent of a group hug, commonly known as a PPM steering committee.  This needs to consist of the sponsors and preferably their bosses to publicly debate and agree relative groupings, priorities and resource allocation.

Height.  Depending on your organisation, you will need the support of the main board or divisional head to protect you from unhappy executives.  Or if you are built like Martin Johnson, you are probably safe already.

So there you are, PPM solved in three dimensions.  Next week, how to make an ESB using origami ...

John Moe